Godaddy takes/steals back domain name

That is the real question, all the TOS's from all the registrars are the same as gdaddy. They don't care unless individuals have the resources to go after them, as of now, they have all the leverage when dealing with a typical customer.

did you send an email to your state attorney general + BBB?

The problem with small claim is that gdaddy is not in my state, so I don't know if it is doable. The court has ruled in the past that Ebay/paypal small claim lawsuits don't have to be filed in California. But I don't know if that ruling will extend to gdaddy's business model and Arizona.


I am trying to find some concrete advice and not unspecific ideas of lawsuits as I don't want to attract attention to the name. Let's just say that the name is very valuable to me or someone who is exploring a similar business venture.

How much experience/credential do you have dealing with gdaddy regarding this particular issue? I want to give you weight for seemingly confident in giving your opinion.

No, not yet, I am trying to gather as much info as possible to take the best actions. My worry is that if I just send out complaints to agencies that have no actual pulls, that will only alert gdaddy on the value that I put on the name.

If GoDaddy cant be trusted, I wonder who else should be.

So what was the domain name?

Ok, I don't get how calling them repeatedly will help. But if you must know, I was on the phone with them for 45 mins and spoke with the CSR and then his section Manager (or what ever the title was). They openly said they don't know what happened, but there is nothing that they can do. I was not berating them and was very respectful, but exasperated at the same time. There was nothing that I could do to make them put it back into my account. They basically had just robbed me, and tried to hold back laughters because they knew I could not do anything to them. They just flat out refused to do it, and they just said that there was nothing that they can do and asked what other problem that they could help me with, if not, they will have to let me off the line.

They follow the same script as any other corporation that screws their customers. It is not unexpected.

As I don't have/know the resources to go after them, I am here asking around for people that know concrete and reasonable solutions. If I have money to hire a lawyer, I would sue them in a heart beat. But I have never had any legal representation and I don't even know who to contact, I flipped through the yellow pages and the lawyers that I called were basically dismissed my case immediately since they are uninformed in internet laws and they see no money in this case.

Small claims court. You represent yourself, they represent themselves. Since its a company, someone from the company will represent Godaddy. 1-on-1. You tell your side of the story to the judge, they do the same. You can also settle out of court.

please keep us updated here if you take the small claims advice,, I think I can say we are all interested in the outcome of such a case, so please post you results here.. thank you

One thing they do is if you search for a name they register it to themselves so you have to pay more for it.

Network Solutions is nice but they cost more.

yeah plus forgot to add that you can claim damages of upto $10k (depending on state laws)

I will have to forgo small claims court. They are not equipped with expertise to deal with intellectual property issues and ICAAN. Small claim judges are usually retired or not very good to start out with, that is why they are in small claims. Many jurisdictions also have their councilman people acting as court magistrates to decide cases. Also, small claim courts don't have jurisdiction over interstate commerce.

Thanks for the advice on small claim court, but I don't think I will pursue this course of action.

It is called domain front running or kiting. Interesting that you think NetSol (aka NSI) as "nice". NetSol is/was the worst offender, they even admitted to doing so by claiming that they proactively reserving domains for their customers.